Glowing With Renewed Pride

It's full steam ahead again at Paksi Atomerőmű, which said yesterday that it was running its troubled Block 2 at 90% of capacity in a controlled test. As you may or may not have heard (or actually allowed to sink in) Hungary's only atomic power station had a bit of an accident in April of last year, when fuel rods in a cleaning tank in the block overheated, allowing radioactive gas to escape into the atmosphere, a nuclear no-no that was eventually graded a three out of seven on the always indispensable International Nuclear Event Scale. Since then the plant pinned the blame on the cleaning tank's Franco-German manufacturer, which paid for a, er, Russian company to clean up the damaged rods and cleaning tank.

Anyway, that's all radioactive water under the bridge now, and everything is apparently okily-dokily-doo at the plant, which is roughly 100 kilometers south of Budapest. According to the people at Paksi, Block 2 will be put back in full service within a few weeks. We had planned on covering the return to full power in person, but will be unable to, as we'll be abroad in late September on important business. But we're sure there is nothing to worry about. Really.